Impress your friends and family with five facts about how people around the world donate.

The CAF World Giving Index 2014 report focuses on three kinds of charitable behaviour - donating money to charity, volunteering and helping a stranger - across 135 countries, to illustrate the nature of giving around the world in 2013. But did you know:

1. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND MYANMAR TIE FOR FIRST PLACE IN THE WORLD GIVING INDEX

While America’s strong performance across all forms of giving contributes to its top ranking. Myanmar’s position is driven primarily by an high proportion of people donating money (91%). This reflects the strong Theravada Buddhist community within Myanmar, with its estimated 500,000 monks (the highest proportion of monks to population of any Buddhist country) receiving support from lay devotees.

The position of Myanmar reminds us how important each country’s distinctive culture is in the predilection of its people to be charitable.

Following Myanmar and the US in the World Giving Index are Canada and Ireland in third and fourth place respectively.

2. ONLY FIVE COUNTRIES IN THIS YEAR’S TOP 20 ARE IN THE G20

Only five of the countries in this year’s World Giving Index Top 20 are members of the G20, a group representing the world’s largest economies, suggesting that giving is about more than just existing wealth.

3. THE MOST SUBSTANTIAL GROWTH IS IN THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE HELPING STRANGERS

The number of people who helped others grew again by over 200 million in 2013, following a similar increase in 2012. This now equates to approximately 2.3 billion people worldwide having helped a stranger in the last month.

4. WOMEN ARE DONATING MORE MONEY THAN MEN IN HIGH INCOME COUNTRIES

Since 2009, women have become more likely than men to donate money to charity at a global level – this is despite the gap in economic participation that still exists between men and women worldwide.

Reflecting this global disparity, women are only more likely to give money in high income countries; in middle and low-income countries men are more likely to donate.

5. DISRUPTIVE EVENTS CAN IMPACT GIVING BEHAVIOURS SIGNIFICANTLY

Malaysia has experienced a significant improvement across all three ways of giving, resulting in a 26 percentage point increase in the World Giving Index, and a move from seventy-first place to seventh.

This behavioural change is likely to reflect the humanitarian effort following Typhoon Haiyan in the neighbouring Philippine archipelago, and is in line with increases in giving following other natural disasters in China and Japan.

It’s encouraging that, regardless of geography or culture, people universally appear to respond to those in need.

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Giving around the world

CAF WORLD GIVING INDEX 2014

Find out how the world gives, and see where your country ranks.

Download the report